Angelo Spaneas
The 10th anniversary of the Great Recession is approaching in a few months and no other industry has been impacted by the aftermath as much as the banking industry. Since 2008, we have seen bail-outs, Treasury department-assisted and mandated acquisitions of troubled institutions like Washington Mutual and Countrywide by JP Morgan/Chase and Bank of America, and the market for sub-prime, Alt-A and private label mortgage-backed securities disappeared virtually overnight.

Roger Poulin
Banks have many ways to invest their depositors’ money and one specifically is in municipal bonds and loans. The major tax advantage that results from this type of investment is that the interest may be exempt from federal taxes and even possibly for state taxes, depending on the specific state tax laws.

Joseph Jalbert
In July 2018, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued back-to-back updates to the new lease guidance in Accounting Standards Codification Topic 842, Leases. Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2018-10 was issued in order to clarify how to apply certain aspects of Topic 842, while right on its heels, ASU 2018-11 was issued with the primary objective of providing transition relief to entities in the year of adoption.

Nickolas Ireland
In order for an institution to have a smooth CECL implementation, it is important that they are either in the “Scenarios & Modeling” phase (or beyond) or are taking the proper steps to soon be in this phase.

The IRS has just released guidance on the tax treatment of the exchange of mortgage-backed securities issued by the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) pursuant to a Single Security Initiative. Freddie Mac and the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) are both regulated by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which has proposed the standardization of the terms for mortgage pass-through certificates issued by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Accordingly, as part of the FHFA’s Single Security Initiative, the FHFA will require Freddie Mac to cease issuing participation certificates and Fannie Mae to cease issuing mortgage-backed securities, and will require both entities to issue Uniform Mortgage-Backed Securities instead. The IRS ruling clarifies that the exchange of mortgage-backed securities pursuant to the Single Security Initiative does not constitute a taxable exchange.

BNN Banking News & Events

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Disclaimer of Liability
This publication is intended to provide general information to our clients and friends. It does not constitute accounting, tax, or legal advice; nor is it intended to convey a thorough treatment of the subject matter.